PARLIAMENTARY SKETCHES.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 239, 3 October 1873, Page 7

PARLIAMENTARY SKETCHES.

" Peregrinus," in the ' Hawke's" Bay Herald,' devotes a chapter of his " personal sketches on Parliament " to the Treasury Benches, and from it we make the folio wiring extracts : " Mr. O' 'Rorke, I believe, in his private capacity, is an unusually amiable and popular man, but on the Treasury Benches, however, he is really no better than a nonentity, if so-good. His deliverances "during the present session have scarcely extended beyond the announcement that he begs to lay on the table " the following correspondence between the Government and the Agent-General," or something else of a similarly unexciting character. His colleagues' don't appear even to let him bring in and pull through the Bills connected with his own department. His aspect is much the reverse of Ministerial, if in that epithet anything of dignity can be held to be implied. Together .with a brogue which., while it marks a nationality possessed in common .with many of'onr ablest statesmen, is in its baoadness; an indication of imperfect culture, it conveys to-the spectator a vivid impression of. insignificance— which is, 'of course, rendered much more striking) by' the disparity between the present position and the man.

" Mr. Reynolds, it must he admitted, is a few decrees better. He is generally credited .with having some opinions of his own, and with the capacity of,sticking to them in a dull, plodding, obstinate way that, is frequently more effective in bringing about tiieir realisation than more brilliant but less persevering advocacy. There is anotheiyCharacteri<tic about him which, is, no doubt, so much in his favor. Though the fact of .his haying, become a Minister is one which forms an inexhaustible source of wondering contemplation to everybody else, it is one which has certainly not made the smallest difference in him. If lie is inwardly elated with his newly-obtained honors, the fact is not perceptible. Perhaps that may be due in part to the circumstance that there was little room left to begin with for. an increase of self-assurance to make itself apparent. He was never remarkable for blushing modesty. On the contrary, he had always a rnethod of conducting himself in the House which showed him to be above the weakness of caring 'much for anyone else's sentiments in reference to him. Groans, cries of "question," cries , of "o'der," a general stampede even,would never have been sufficient to bring him to his seat, once he was on his legs. If the House had emptied itself to the last member, he would have gone on delivering himself of hi'; views with stolid complacency to Mr. Speaker and the Ser-geant,^-at-arms. If they had cleared out at last in sheer despair, the enrptly benches would not have escaped the fag-end. of Hie oration. It thus happens that the House is in some respects a gainer by Mr. Reynold's promotion. I:Ie can't follow out his natural bent for playing the bore to so full an extent as he could if he were a private member. His colleagues would be apt to remind him that it would not answer. Then, too, he has opportunities of taking it out in the Cabinet, which rumor says he malces the'most of. "With reference to Mr. Richardson, the Public Works Minister, there is little to be said, but what little there is, to be correct, must be complimentarf, and both partizans and antagonists give him the credit of being as efficient and hard-work-ing a public servant as any that the Colony has ever possessed. Hi * forte is not debate, though this is probably as much owing to the fact that his voice is not adapted for public speaking as to any other cause. There is a general feeling that what he says may be taken as fact, and that there is no double meaning or mental reservation behind it. Tn a Publie Works Minister, one of w" oso main duties it is to solve Parliamentary conundrums, tins qualification is of. no small value."